This savory vegan frittata is filled with onions, kale, red bell pepper, and veggie sausage. It’s all cradled in a creamy tofu and cashew filling.
It’s a wonderful make-ahead meal for easy weekday breakfasts. Just reheat and eat.
Or serve it for a holiday brunch. Vegan & gluten-free optional.
Want to start your day with a satiating breakfast that includes protein and veggies?
Do yourself a favor and make a vegan frittata.
It has a beautifully creamy yet firm texture.
Then it’s dotted with chewy seitan sausage, red bell pepper, and kale.
You get umami from white miso paste, and cheesiness from nutritional yeast flakes.
Finally, there’s paprika, ancho chili powder, and cumin with a pinch of turmeric for color.
If you make it on Sunday, you can simply reheat slices throughout the week.
It’s so convenient knowing a delicious breakfast is just waiting for you in the refrigerator.
It’s also eye-catching enough for a Christmas morning breakfast.
To fill out the meal, add breakfast potatoes or an air fried hash brown patty.
Difference between frittata & quiche
The biggest difference between a frittata and a quiche is the crust or lack of one.
A quiche is a French egg dish that’s baked in a pie crust.
Frittatas are an Italian egg dish that don’t include a crust.
Since this is a vegan recipe, of course, no eggs are involved here.
This egg-free frittata is made with a base of tofu and raw cashews.
I already have a recipe on the blog for crustless vegan quiche bites (above).
They’re like vegan egg muffins that can be cooked in the oven or air fryer.
But I wanted to offer a more standard alternative for folks who would prefer to make a full-sized frittata.
It’s a great option for people who like the look of a slice, or who don’t have a muffin pan.
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.
Step by step instructions
Here’s how to make this recipe at a glance. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.
1. Soak raw cashew pieces to soften them.
You can cover them in boiling water, or microwave them until the water is hot.
Then let them soak for ten minutes or more. Drain.
(If you don’t have a high-speed blender, you’ll want to soften the cashews even more by soaking for several hours. Or you can grind dry raw cashews in a coffee grinder, and then add the pulverized cashews to a standard blender.)
2. Add the following to a high-speed blender:
- Soaked & drained raw cashews
- Non-dairy milk
- Stone-ground mustard
- Hot sauce
- White miso paste
- Super firm tofu (from a vacuum-packed package)
Blend until smooth.
If you have a Vitamix, this is a great time to get the tamper involved. Otherwise, stop occasionally to scrape down the sides.
Once it’s smooth, add the following to the blender:
- Nutritional yeast flakes
- Granulated onion
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Ancho chili powder
- Turmeric
- Kala namak (also known as black salt)
Blend until it’s mostly incorporated.
(If it’s not completely incorporated, it’s not a deal breaker, because you’ll be mixing it with other ingredients shortly.)
3. Now it’s time to make your vegetable filling.
In a skillet, brown veggie sausage (or seitan bacon), onions, red bell pepper, and kale over medium heat.
Then in a mixing bowl, combine the tofu mixture with the vegetable filling until evenly incorporated.
4. Put the tofu mixture in a greased pie pan. Sprinkle with a little more paprika for color. Then bake.
Make it your own
This vegan tofu frittata recipe is rife with variation options.
That makes it a super handy recipe for cleaning out the fridge.
You don’t need a lot of any one ingredient.
And you can tweak it depending on your preferences & produce drawer.
Vary the vegetables
Replace any of the vegetables with an equal amount of jarred artichoke hearts, steamed broccoli, chopped spinach, red onion, cubed cooked potato, asparagus, zucchini, sautéed mushrooms, and/or diced tomato.
You basically want 2 cups of filling in total. Use whatever suits you.
Vary the sausage or bacon
This eggless frittata is great with any veggie sausage or bacon you like.
Herbivorous Butcher sausage, ham, hickory bacon, or maple bacon are all terrific choices.
Field Roast breakfast sausage, Upton’s Naturals bacon, chorizo seitan, or Italian seitan are good here too.
Add non-dairy cheese
Nutritional yeast adds a nice cheesy flavor to the frittata.
You can make it even cheesier by replacing a ½ portion of one of the vegetables with the non-dairy cheese of your choice.
Vegan feta cheese would be lovely with jarred artichoke hearts, cooked potato, and asparagus!
Replace ancho chili powder
Instead of using ancho chili powder, season with berbere.
It’s one of my favorite Ethiopian spices. And it plays really nicely with all of the other seasonings.
Omit kala namak
Kala namak is an Indian salt with a sulfurous flavor. You can find it at Indian grocery stores or online.
However, if you’re not into eggy flavors or can’t source kala namak, simply omit it.
There’s plenty of flavor without it.
Gluten-free optional
Since there’s no crust on a vegan frittata, it can easily be gluten-free.
Be sure to use gluten-free miso paste.
Then simply replace seitan-based sausage or bacon with a vegetable.
Or use Beyond Meat or Impossible sausage. They’re both gluten-free.
If you’re using Beyond Meat or Impossible sausage, I recommend cooking them separately.
They release a lot of oil when they cook, and the flavor can overtake the vegetables.
By cooking them in their own pan, you can just take out the sausage and leave the grease.
Serving ideas
With vegan frittata you can lean into the breakfast direction with potatoes or more towards brunch with roasted vegetables & salad.
Here are some side dish recipes that work well:
Storage & reheating
Store leftover frittata in a covered container in the refrigerator.
Or wrap the pie plate tightly in plastic wrap.
It will keep for 3 or 4 days.
Reheat slices in the microwave. Microwave in 30 second intervals until warm.
(Or the frittata can also be eaten cold.)
Leftovers can also be frozen.
To freeze, cut remaining frittata into slices. Wrap each slice in plastic wrap. Then put them in a freezer safe container or bag.
When you’re ready to enjoy it, move individual slices to the refrigerator to thaw.
Once thawed, reheat as listed above.
📖 Recipe
Vegan frittata with sausage & kale
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon organic canola oil or other neutral-flavored oil, divided
- ½ cup raw cashew pieces soaked ahead of time if necessary & drained
- 3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
- ½ teaspoon hot sauce
- 1 Tablespoon white miso paste
- 1 teaspoon stoneground mustard
- 16 ounces super firm tofu in vacuum packaging**
- 6 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- ½ teaspoon granulated onion
- ½ teaspoon paprika plus extra for sprinkling on top as garnish
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon ancho chili powder or berbere
- ½ teaspoon kala namak a.k.a. black salt***
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ cup seitan sausage or bacon, cut in small, bite-sized pieces****
- ½ cup red bell pepper chopped
- ½ cup onions chopped
- ½ cup curly kale chopped (Basically one handful)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a pie pan with about ½ teaspoon of organic canola oil or your preferred oil. (I used a glass pie pan, but any type is fine.) Set aside.
- If you have a high speed blender you can soak for the raw cashews for a shorter amount of time than if you're using a standard blender. Put the raw cashews in a bowl and cover them with hot water (even just microwaving them in water until hot works fine). Let them soak in the hot water for at least 10 minutes. Then drain & continue with the recipe. If you don't have a high speed blender, cover the raw cashews with hot or cold water and allow them to soak for several hours to soften. Then drain & continue with the recipe. (There are more workaround ideas in the comments.)
- For easiest blending, I recommend putting the soft or liquid ingredients into the blender pitcher first. Put soaked & drained raw cashews, non-dairy milk, hot sauce, white miso paste, and stoneground mustard into the blender pitcher. Then crumble the super firm tofu into the blender pitcher. Blend until smooth. If you're using a Vitamix blender, press the ingredients with a tamper to get everything fully blended. If not, stop occasionally to scrape down the sides, so that everything gets evenly combined and there are no whole pieces of cashew left.
- Now it's time to add the dry ingredients to the blender. Add nutritional yeast flakes, granulated onion, paprika, cumin, ancho chili powder (or berbere), kala namak, and turmeric. Blend to combine. (If it doesn't get completely incorporated, that's okay. You'll have a chance to mix it more evenly in a second.)
- Bring a skillet to a medium heat. Add remaining ½ teaspoon oil to the skillet along with seitan bacon or sausage. Brown for a couple minutes. Then add red bell pepper, onions, and curly kale. Cook for two or three minutes more, until the kale is softened & bright green. You don't have to worry about getting everything super cooked, because it will cook further in the oven.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the tofu mixture from the blender with the vegetable mixture from the skillet. Make sure everything is evenly incorporated and combined by using a spoon or your your hands. (If you're using your hands, just make sure the vegetable mixture isn't too hot, so that you don't get burned.)
- Move the tofu mixture to the reserved greased pie pan. Use a knife or rubber spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with more paprika for extra color.
- Move to the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow it to cool & firm for about 10 minutes until slicing.
in2insight
The flavors were spot on as was the texture. Used the optional Beyond Meat Breakfast paddies (2) and a zucchini in place of the onion.
Blending was a challenge as the mixture is pretty firm, but a series of scrapping and mixing did the trick.
Thank you for sharing.
Cadry Nelson
Yes, the mixture is very thick in the blender. I’m glad it worked out, and you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback!
David
I’ve never had a non-vegan frittata, so I have no basis for comparison – but I absolutely love this! So creamy and delicious. The cilantro adds a lot too.